A Brief History of B&H Photo and the Google Creep Factor

I very much enjoyed this Brief History of B&H Photo which appeared on YouTube the other night. I’ve been a long time customer of theirs and have almost always had excellent experiences. But there’s one creepy footnote to how I came across the ad.

I happened to notice that I was receiving marketing emails from B&H that I just don’t need for shopping there. So, to further declutter my mailbox, I clicked the link from within Gmail to their website.

B&H Photo Unsubscribe Quickly Triggers YouTube Advertisement

Very shortly after, likely within minutes, their cute little video appeared as an advertisement while browsing some YouTube clips.

Because I like B&H so much, I found the video informative and likable. Their use of Google advertising isn’t something I’d hold against them. As for the Google advertising, the creep factor increased another few points.

It’s a good reminder of the dark side of using Google’s web services. We are the product. They are making money off our privacy. It’s not always this obvious.